Sous Chef
Assistant Buyer & Merchandiser
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About Sous Chef
Exceptional dishes start with extraordinary ingredients. Our small team travels, tastes and tests to uncover the very best from the world’s kitchens—from ingredients and gifts to tableware and cookware.
We’re an independent family company, inspiring home cooks and professional chefs since 2012. We look for outstanding flavour, thoughtful design and excellent craftsmanship, choosing products that give food lovers a reason to try something new.
Our ambitions are big, and every person in our team can make a visible difference to the business.
The Role
Are you a food nerd with a head for numbers?
We’re looking for an Assistant Buyer & Merchandiser who combines a serious interest in food and cooking with strong analytical skills. You might already work in buying or merchandising, or you might be in another commercial role where Excel, data and numbers are part of your everyday work.
You don’t need previous buying experience. You do need curiosity, accuracy and evidence that you can turn numbers into useful commercial decisions.
Working with the Buyer and Founder, you’ll help discover outstanding ingredients, develop our own-label ranges and build supplier relationships. You’ll also analyse sales, margins and stock to help us decide what to buy, how much to buy and where to improve the range.
Your Mission
Discover Outstanding Products and Producers
- Find products that deserve a place at Sous Chef. Assess their quality, customer appeal and commercial potential, bringing well-researched recommendations to our Buyer.
- Build relationships with suppliers to explore opportunities and secure samples, costings, product information, and exclusivity.
Develop New Products for Sous Chef
- Support own-label development from initial idea through to finished product.
- Research customer needs, help shape supplier briefs, assess samples and refine specifications and costings with our Buyer.
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Communicate Products Brilliantly to the Customer
- Work with suppliers, purchasing, marketing and ecommerce to get products ready to sell.
- Coordinate launches so products go live on schedule, with accurate pricing, complete information and stock available for customers.
- Use your product knowledge to support marketing with buying guides and merchandising on the website.
Identify Opportunities to Grow Sales and Improve Margins
- Use sales, margin and stock analysis to spot gaps in the range, products with growth potential and lines that need attention.
- Recommend practical actions on pricing, promotion, stock and product selection.
- Work with purchasing to recommend order quantities and flag stock risks.
What You’ll Bring
Food Curiosity and Judgement
- You cook regularly, read cookbooks for pleasure and disappear down rabbit holes about ingredients, producers and techniques.
- Your shelves are overflowing, your saved posts are mostly food, and discovering an unfamiliar ingredient sends you straight into research mode.
- You can tell us what you’re cooking, tasting or obsessing over - and why it’s worth our attention.
Commercial Experience and Data Insight
- You have at least two years’ experience using Excel and analysing numbers in a commercial role, such as buying, merchandising, finance, consulting or operations.
- You check your workings carefully and turn data into clear commercial recommendations.
A Talent for Building Relationships
- You build rapport easily and earn trust by listening, communicating clearly and doing what you say you’ll do.
- You work well with colleagues and suppliers, ask thoughtful questions and can be persistent without damaging a relationship.
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Resourceful and Hands-On
- You’ve ideally worked in a small or medium-sized business, where roles overlap and you get involved beyond your core responsibilities.
- You’re comfortable finding answers independently and happy doing the practical work needed to move things forward.
Useful, But Not Essential
- Experience working with food or homeware products.
- Buying, merchandising or ecommerce experience.
- Product development experience, including own-label products.
- Experience managing relationships with suppliers, customers or other external partners.
Why Join Sous Chef?
Turn your interest in food and your analytical skills into a career in buying and merchandising, with guidance from an experienced buyer and founder. You’ll help shape what we sell, see the impact of your work and take on more responsibility as your skills develop.
Our benefits include:
- Hybrid working, with two days a week at our Hornsey office.
- Private medical insurance through Vitality.
- Life and critical illness insurance.
- A company pension scheme.
- A generous staff discount on our ingredients, cookware and tableware.
- A discretionary bonus scheme.
Location and Travel
Based in Hornsey, London N8 9DJ, with hybrid working and two days a week in the office. The role includes international travel to meet suppliers and attend trade fairs- typically 3–8 trips a year, lasting a few days each.
How to Apply
Please submit your CV and a covering letter addressing the following:
- Why this role interests you, and why you are a good fit.
- A food product, producer, cookbook or cooking trend that has caught your attention recently, and why.
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